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Nintendo Going Online, Releasing New Games
GamesIndustry.biz has an article up about the Big N's future plans. Shigeru Miyamoto stated recently that Nintendo plans to be fully supporting online play within a few years, with the DS leading the way. From the article: "Miyamoto, credited as the design genius behind key Nintendo franchises including Zelda and Mario, told the magazine that online gaming will reach the mainstream within three to four years, and that Nintendo will be moving in that direction as a result." Gamespot also has details on upcoming Gamecube games, including another Mario, the next Legend of Zelda, Donkey Konga 3, Mario Baseball, and a new Kirby game.
Online support for the DS would give them an easy chance to practice. It's a small group of users. And besides, it wouldn't take much bandwidth to serve DS games.
The article repeatedly says that Nintendo plans to come online within a 3-4 year timescale. I don't really see that as the near future. All of the current consoles will likely be onto their next versions by then.
If I had just bought a DS, which hypes online capabilites as a major feature, I would be very annoyed that I had to wait 3 years before I got any games that supported it.
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The second link should be "upcoming GameCube games". The A-tag has two double-quotes by accident, causing browsers to read it as A HREF=""....
As a diehard nintendo fan since I was 6, I'm glad to see nintendo finnaly join us in the 21st century and go online. Imagine playing Super Samsh Bros. online! Now all nintendo needs to do is to get a 3rd party supporter!
The key word Mr. Miyamoto used was 'mainsteam'.
Online gaming for consoles isn't anywhere near mainstream as of now, even with services like Xbox Live.
Honestly, I would expect this. I don't think Nintendo is really out to piss off their consumers. I think what they're after is quality. Think about it - Nintendo is frequently the last console company to implement something, but it's almost always a high-quality implementation. Remember the SNES' dying days where it was fighting off both SEGA's and Sony's CD-based 32-bit consoles? I remember frustration as my friends played games like Tomb Raider and Virtua Fighter in full 3D while I was left with Donkey Kong Country and its 2D, side-scrolling action. But then came the N64, and while it didn't even scratch the surface of the PSone's success, it definitely blew it away in quality. Games like Super Mario 64 and Legend of Zelda : OoT were rendered in full 3D without load times and pixelated graphics and still maintained the Nintendo quality of gameplay from the 16-bit days. It set a new standard for console 3D games and gameplay.
When Nintendo finally moved to disc-based media with the GCN, they moved because load-times were far less of an issue with the current technology. They waited for it so they wouldn't rub their consumers the wrong way. While I loved the PSone, looking back, the load times were atrocious. Piracy of GCN games is near impossible and they're still able to keep up with the pack in most areas (with only the biggest games suffering from the proprietary media size limit).
The DS is another fine example waiting to unfold. Nintendo is just now doing 3D pocket gaming. There have been plenty of technologically superior portable game consoles capable of 3D, yet Nintendo's gameboy series has always done better in the market. There's no question that the DS is less powerful than the PSP, but I think Nintendo is more concerned with the quality of the game rather than the graphical superiority.
This is not to say that Nintendo made the right choice in waiting to advance their technologies, but I am saying that when Nintendo does enter the online arena, it will be a high-quality entrance, as history has proved. They might lose some sales because online console capabilities is a selling point for some people, but I think Nintendo has sent the message time and time again that they're not after the gamers who want bleeding edge technology; they're after the gamers who want high-quality, rich gaming experiences.
(and yes, I'm aware of Nintendo's forays into the online and CD-based markets)
"You and your third dimension."
If Miyamoto is starting to talk about online gaming, then I think that means that he may already have some game ideas in mind. Up until now, Nintendo has been famously against online gaming. But given the string of Miyamoto hits that have supported the company over the years, if he is talking about online play, then the wheels are finally starting to turn at Nintendo. But I don't really believe it will be 3 or 4 years. If they are serious, I'd guess we'll see some serious NDS online play within about 18 months, maybe something related to Pikmin or Pokemon. Maybe they'll have a bundle with a GameCube wireless router add-on or something. I think an online multiplayer Mario might be interesting, but a real challenge to design and keep the Mario flavor.
Heck, if they're working with Square Enix, we might even see some kind of FFIX NDS connectivity as a proof of concept (wild speculation!). This might be followed by a version of Crystal Chronicles with online elements or full blown online multiplayer.
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Not innovate? Nintendo is responsible for the D-Pad, Rumbling controllers, the Virtual Boy, the e-reader, wireless controllers for the NES, and the Game & Watch, among other things. Granted, not all of those were particularly successful, but they were innovative.
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It's funny you should mention that. Me and a friend were discussing that very topic over lunch last week when both of us had classes canceled. He raised the legitimate point that, from the outside looking in, Nintendo doesn't seem to be innovating that much. I mean, there's well over 40 different Mario titles to date. However, for the most part, I've found that when Nintendo licenses their characters into a new spin-off game, it's actually quite innovative. I can say with a certain amount of confidence that Mario Kart, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf are all really fun and different from any cart/tennis/golf game I've played. If they were simply cart/tennis/golf sims, then it would be a perfectly valid point to state that no innovation has been done, but that is not the case. All of the spin-off franchises brought something new to the new medium of sport, the hallmark "Nintendo quirkiness", or in the case of the Zelda series, you get a graphical overhaul/new battle system/new multiplayer features/new style of story-telling.
With that said, I'm looking forward to Mario Baseball. It will be interesting to see what spin Nintendo takes on the sport.
I really big to differ on the Sony note. Nintendo lost because Sony is just plain better at courting the consumer and the developer. While I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series, there's not a tremendous amount of innovation between 7 and 10, aside from battle system improvements and new characters and story, it's pretty much more of the same. And I wouldn't have it any other way for FF, that's how I like it, but it's not innovative. Generic cookie-cutter sports titles, Yet Another Animated 2-D Generic Marvel vs. Capcom vs. KOF vs. SNK vs. SF games, Yet Another 'I Wish I Was Final Fantasy II So Bad' Sprite-Based RPG, all found a home on the PSX. Sony won because they knew which buttons to press while Nintendo was asleep on the job, not because they were innovative.
"You and your third dimension."
"Nintendo was absolutely opposed to online gaming. The only reason why they are shifting gears is because they are under fire from Sony and M$. "
Niether are true. Nintendo's not opposed to on-line gaming, they're opposed to making a bad business move. Either on-line gaming is free to the customer at the big N's expense, or big N has to charge a fee and scare away a bunch of customers. Sony and MS aren't forcing Nintendo in this direction, they're not even very successful with their services. If anything, Sony and MS have caused Nintendo to step back a bit and work out a better way to do this. Console based on-line gaming is just plain not a successful venture.
This is a service that has to be done right. Until one of these companies works out a way to do it, everybody's behind.
"Derp de derp."
I think that Nintendo probably goes something like "Let's make baseball game", and come up with the idea for the game - then when they need to stick some characters in, they pick from their stock selection of Mario/Zelda, etc.
On the other hand, another company probably goes something like "Let's make a another Mario game". Then when they need to actually have some gameplay, they stick some stock baseball game in.
I think the use of Mario is more to just place their trademark on the game, more than anything. Of course, the name recognition helps as well.